Gordon, Johnson are docked points

Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, NASCAR’s two winningest drivers this season, were each docked 100 championship points Tuesday and their crew chiefs were suspended for six races for technical violations last weekend at Sonoma, Calif.

The respective crew chiefs, Steve Letarte for Gordon and Chad Knaus for Johnson, were fined $100,000 each and put on probation until Dec. 31. Team owner Rick Hendrick was penalized 100 owner points for Gordon’s car. Gordon, listed as owner of Johnson’s car within the Hendrick Motorsports organization, was penalized 100 owner points.

Winners of four races each this season, the two Hendrick Motorsports drivers were the latest big-name examples made by NASCAR in its crackdown on bending the rules for the Car of Tomorrow design.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team was the first to be nailed, with precisely the same penalties, in May. Earnhardt’s car had unapproved mounting brackets for the rear wing, which could change the wing angle and enhance aerodynamic down force.

“Now if this penalty won’t stop it, we have no problems ramping up,” Nextel Cup Director John Darby said Tuesday. “We can keep going, and we will until we get the results we’re looking for.”

In a statement, Hendrick said: “We are disappointed in NASCAR’s decision and feel the penalties are excessive. Right now all of our options are being evaluated, including our personnel situation and a possible appeal to the National Stock Car Racing Commission.”

That body often hears appeals, but very rarely overturns penalties issued by NASCAR.

Even with the penalty, Gordon maintains a comfortable 171-point lead over Denny Hamlin in the Nextel Cup standings. Johnson dropped from third to fifth, allowing Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton to move up to third and fourth, respectively.

But none of the points shuffle is crucial at this stage because this year’s new Chase for the Nextel Cup playoff format includes the top 12 drivers in the standings at the end of “regular season” -- 10 races from now.

The penalties stem from failure of Gordon’s and Johnson’s Chevrolet Impalas to pass initial inspection Friday for Sunday’s Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway.

Both cars fit within the complex “claw” of templates applied by NASCAR at inspection. But NASCAR officials deemed the front fenders of both cars too wide in a small, 10-inch area not touched by the templates.

NASCAR repeatedly has warned teams it will not tolerate rule-bending on its Car of Tomorrow because one major purpose of the new design is to have uniform bodywork among all competitors. Darby said the flaring of the front fenders made the overall width of the Gordon and Johnson cars at least one inch wider than NASCAR allows.

Without a severe NASCAR crackdown, “It starts with a fender that’s an inch too wide,” Darby said. “And as it grows, pretty soon it’s the side of a car that looks like a Coke bottle.

“Those are the things that drive race cars toward specialized race cars for every track, and that’s what we’re trying to prevent as much as we can.”

Doug Duchardt, Hendrick Motorsports vice president of development and a former racing director at General Motors, said the violation was unintentional and that the team thought it was free to work within those areas.

After their cars were changed to meet NASCAR specifications, Gordon and Johnson were allowed to race Sunday, but had to start at the back of the 43-car field. Gordon finished seventh and Johnson 17th.

Knaus and Letarte are free to direct day-to-day operations at Hendrick’s vast complex near Charlotte, N.C.

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Ed Hinton covers auto racing for Tribune newspapers.